TOKYO, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) will remove more than 400 firms from its main Topix index in 2025 as it pursues reform aimed at attracting more investors.

High-end restaurant and hotel operator Hiramatsu and salad dressing maker Pietro are among 439 companies that will be removed in January 2025, said JPX Market Innovation & Research, a unit of Japan Exchanges Group Inc.

The move comes as the TSE presses ahead with reform after conducting its biggest overhaul in a decade last year in tightening criteria and reorganising its trading platforms.

The bourse a year ago disclosed that some 500 companies were candidates for removal and began cutting their weightings gradually. It will continue cutting weightings of those affected companies until they are completely eliminated in January 2025.

Several regional lenders such as Shimane Bank and Tomato Bank will be also removed.

They failed to meet the criteria as their market capitalisation in tradable shares remained less than 10 billion yen ($67.15 million).

Forty-three companies, including funeral services provider Kosaido Holdings and Chikaranomoto Holdings, an operator of ramen noodle shop "Ippudo", will stay on the index after meeting the criteria, JPX Market Innovation & Research said.

Some 2,100 companies currently trade on the broader Topix.

($1 = 148.9100 yen) (Reporting by Junko Fujita in Tokyo; editing by Mark Heinrich)